


only breath and shadow

by elphabun



Series: the brightest flame casts the darkest shadow [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Eldritch, Other, eldritch abomination nara, if you think this doesnt cause some interesting interactions youre wrong, uchiha are made of fire
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-20
Updated: 2019-12-20
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:09:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21868795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elphabun/pseuds/elphabun
Summary: the Nara clan thinks differently than most. sees differently than most. they exist always partly in shadow and they like it that way.the Uchiha clan is made of fire. breathing, living fire that twists inside and only needs half a thought to escape.
Series: the brightest flame casts the darkest shadow [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1575505
Comments: 1
Kudos: 56
Collections: Best of Naruto Fanfics





	only breath and shadow

**Author's Note:**

> these were originally two separate ideas in my head until I rambled in the discord about them. then they got connected and now I can't stop.
> 
> there will definitely be more of this series

In Konoha, in the forests and their dappled shadows, the Nara look at the world and _see_. They see the movements of the stars and lose themselves in the shadows all around. The deer are sacred—they too understand the cosmos and the shifting play of gradients along the edges of what's real. 

The Nara see many. They _are_ many. Sometimes it's hard to be such a small thing in such a small space but they manage. They have help.

Centuries ago the Nara met the Akimichi, who offered shelter and warmth for medicine (the antlers of the Nara deer are not prime medicinal material because of _chakra,_ oh no). They wouldn't leave the Nara to starve, the Akimichi said, but they really did need medicine and if the Nara helped the Akimichi would gladly open their doors and let the Nara stay. 

The Akimichi meant it and the Nara knew it and so they said yes.

Later the Nara would meet the Yamanaka and they would see that those iris eyes were like their own almost. They both saw the truth of things in their own ways.

* * *

Uchiha are born running hot. Not too hot. Not enough to startle anyone who touches them but hot enough that sometimes, when the other person isn't paying attention, they almost burn. 

( _What kind of a clan teaches their toddlers how to breathe fire?_ The others—Senju-Daimyo-civilians-Konoha— whisper) (But Uchiha babes sneeze cinders and cough smoke. No one ever has to teach them _how_ )

It would be unfair to say the Uchiha are too self-absorbed to notice the strangeness of the Nara but. Well how are they supposed to know if the Nara feel too much like shadow, like cold void? Uchiha are fire—breathing, burning, blazing. Everything feels too cold, too dark, too lifeless to them. Too different. And after all, fire casts such strange shadows.

* * *

To the Nara the Uchiha are so bright that looking at them is like looking at the full radiance of the sun. Dangerous. Painful. Exhilarating. It's almost too much trouble to go about interacting with them, not even taking into account their _personalities_. But they are so very warm and their fires cast such interesting shadows. Walking through them feels like no other shadow. The Nara can't resist.

(If they look long enough into that blinding starfire they can see the deep dark core so hot it's frozen. Not many get the opportunity—there's oh so much fire to look through first)


End file.
